The Investigative Committee has launched an inspection into a Moscow region police department after a Tajikistan native died while in custody there.
A postmortem examination revealed that the man, who had been detained for questioning in connection with a reported rape, had broken ribs and multiple bruises on his body, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified source in law enforcement.
If an autopsy reveals that the injuries were inflicted during questioning, criminal cases will be opened against police officers at the Solnechnogorsk department in the suburbs of Moscow, the report said.
A similar incident in Russia's republic of Tatarstan in 2012 uncovered systemic police abuse of suspects at the Dalny precinct in Kazan.
The death of 52-year-old Sergei Nazarov, who was later found to have been sodomized with a champagne bottle while in detention, prompted an investigation into the police department that led to 18 criminal cases involving 24 different crimes.
Ten police officers from that department were subsequently sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and numerous residents came forward to complain about police behavior.
The police chief at the time, Rustem Kadyrov, stepped down over the revelations of rampant police abuse.
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